2 A 14-Year-Old’s Guide to the Pandemic: How I Became A Pro at Doing Absolutely Nothing

Going through COVID-19 as a 14-year-old was an experience that I can confidently say I will never forget. It was a time of fear, a time of confusion, and most of all, in my case, a time of loneliness. Physically, I was a 14-year-old girl who was just in high school. I had gotten, maybe, a full 6 months of being in ninth grade, socializing, and figuring out who I was, and then just like that, March break got a 2-week extension. It did not seem too bad initially, no one was sure what was happening, but 3 weeks of not having to take math, count me in! I can recall my drama teacher at the time talking about how she could not find any toilet paper, and that all of the cleaning supplies at the store were gone. I still was not worried; I did not understand the severity of the situation. I understood people were getting sick, but in my head, it was just a glorified cold. My mother was out of the country at that point, so I stayed at my best friend’s house for the first week of the break. I had a good time. Everything was still open in the city, so nothing really changed for me in those first few days. However, as I continued to watch the news with my friend and her family, the fear started to set in. I was stressed out, wondering if they were going to shut the borders, if my mom could get back home, or worse, what if she got sick while she was there?

I have always been an anxious person, but COVID truly brought it out more than anything else in my life. My mental health got extremely bad during the pandemic, as I can imagine it happened to many others my age as well. The second my mom got home, and I left my friend’s house, I was determined to lock myself in the house until I was supposed to go back to school in two weeks. I had a fear of myself or the people I cared about getting sick, that I rebooted my entire life to make sure everyone was safe. I asked my mom to stop grocery shopping and order groceries. I would get my entire family to wipe down our groceries before they came into the house, and I refused to go outside, even if I knew that I would not be in contact with anyone. In an attempt to stay busy, I started working out heavily. It was good for a while. It was keeping me busy and making me feel productive, but with nothing else to do, I decided to glow myself up during the break, which got me into a very unhealthy relationship with my diet and exercise. I have spoken to many others about that experience, and it seemed to be a pretty common situation with people my age. With that, and the anxiety of the pandemic, my mental health was at an all-time low.

My COVID experience was not so bad. My family was healthy, and I was healthy. It was lonely for sure, but I was a 14-year-old locked in a house with unlimited wifi, so I was not really complaining. It could have been worse, and I barely got off my phone at that age, either way. I channeled a lot of my boredom into doing things that I enjoyed but did not have time to do before. That was working out, watching shows and movies I had put off, spending time with my family, and crafting. I bought a pottery wheel, so I spent a lot of time learning to use that. I would try and keep in contact with my friends, whether that was through eight-hour video chats, or later on going on walks (of course, with gloves, masks, and staying at least 15 feet apart). Unfortunately, because I was a ninth grader, I was very prevalent on social media, which meant that I was constantly embarrassing myself on the Internet. I find myself going back and cringing at the things I would post as a bored kid. I decided I was going to try to go viral on TikTok for singing. I did not, and therefore constantly look back at my posts in horror. Luckily, a lot of people I know did the same thing, so at least I have other accounts to go down the rabbit hole instead of my own. Overall, the internet was a really fun tool to have during the pandemic, but it was also one of those things that I wish I had not spent that much time on.

Connecting my personal COVID experience to a course theme would be best used when talking about blame and stigma. COVID-19 caused a really big uproar in activism and protesting for what is right. As the pandemic spread to other places in the world, people started to pass the blame onto people from certain backgrounds or areas, such as the Asian community, and healthcare workers. The stigma started to become very aggressive, with people getting beaten up, blamed and scapegoated just for being themselves. The stigma caused not only visible racial discrimination but also made it so that the people who were being blamed developed a fear of going out or getting tested or vaccinated, due to the negativity they may have received. The racist comments and actions were quickly met with protests and others standing up for the greater good. Social media was being used to spread awareness and support for the people who were being treated poorly, and it was a really good example of the community coming together to stand up for others. There was a lot of unnecessary blame and stigma directed at members of certain communities, which we have seen time and time again throughout the content of this class.

Overall, the pandemic had a really significant impact on activism, mental health, and the way we live life today. Since the pandemic, people have developed a lot of habits that we never really did before, such as constant hand sanitizing, virtual meetings rather than in-person, and online shopping and food delivery, which really made their mark during COVID-19. The life we knew before had shifted, and we still have not seen it fully return. My experience was okay. There were moments of loneliness and fear, but it could have been a lot worse, and the people I care about were all safe and healthy, which is important. It was a crazy experience, but I am glad it is over now, for the most part.